


The Road to Extraordinary

by What_They_Call_Me



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Abuse, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Good Sister Vanya Hargreeves, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Sibling Bonding, Sibling Love, Vanya Hargreeves Needs A Hug, no beta we die like ben
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-22
Updated: 2019-08-22
Packaged: 2020-09-24 02:30:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20350912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/What_They_Call_Me/pseuds/What_They_Call_Me
Summary: Vanya Hargreeves has always wanted to be extraordinary like her siblings. But born without powers Vanya must learn that being extrordinary comes in her ordinary.Basically just six times her siblings call her special because I'm a sucker for happy loving families.





	The Road to Extraordinary

Vanya didn’t train like the rest of them did. Sure she had her studies, and yes she was a part of group training sessions, if only as the recorder of data, but she craved more, she wanted to be more than the girl with the notebook.

A part of her self imposed training training was to help her siblings, which was a difficult task. The thing about have six siblings, all numbered higher than you, who were all super powered is they tended to believe they were above the help of ordinary people like her. It was a byproduct of saving the ordinary population weekly and monthly, it was ingrained in their brains that they were inherently better than the ordinary.

So, in order to prove herself to her siblings Vanya had to become extraordinary, and that’s what she did.

  
  


She started with Klaus, because she felt like she and Klaus had the most in common. He too seemed afraid, had panic attacks, and Vanya couldn’t stop those but she hoped to make them better, more bearable.

Vanya knew that the worst of Klaus’ training happened at night, when Reginald would whisk Klaus away for hours and never tell anyone where he was being kept. Klaus always returned with tear stained cheeks and a voice hoarse from screaming. Even Vanya, who wrote notes and collected data for her father, was not privy to where Klaus went on these nights; but Vanya decided that she would be there the next time Klaus was taken.

So when Reginald took Klaus from the house, Vanya may have arranged to be in the back seat of the car. She also may have arragended to be in the mausoleum before the doors closed and locked for the night.

She had been hiding just to the left of the mausoleum’s door, out of sight of Reginald. Klaus didn’t even notice her as their father pushed him roughly into the crypt.

The mausoleum was unnaturally cold. It seeped from the walls and the floors, the aching coldness that wouldn’t go away, and Vanya almost threw up. Because in that moment she realised what her brother had to go through alone.

Klaus had already pushed himself into the corner of the mausoleum with his eyes screwed shut and his hands clamped over his ears. He looked too pale, and too scared to be her hero brother.

“Klaus?” Vanya asked, her voice shook more than she wanted it to. Vanya was supposed to be the calm protector here, and she still sounded scared.

Klaus peaked one eye open, and stared at Vanya in a panic, “Vanya? What are you doing here?”

Vanya crossed the five steps separating them and pulled Klaus into a fiercely tight hug. Klaus, at first, didn’t respond but slowly he leaned into the hug, clutching his sister like a life line.

“I didn’t want you to be alone.” Vanya whispered. She could feel Klaus shake in her arms, she could feel his hot tears on her shoulder. And even if Vanya couldn’t sleep these nights, even if the cold of the cemetery seeped deeply into her own bones and numbed her to the core, she was thankful that she was able to help her brother. Even if only a little.

From then on, Vanya tried her best to be in the car when her father took Klaus away. Each time Klaus saw how she shook, how uncomfortable with the dead she was. He was almost too selfish to ask her why she would subject herself to this time after time, because Klaus feared if he asked she would stop doing it, and then he would be left with just the ghosts and his mind again. But one very terrible night, where Vanya was already sick with a cold, tired and hungry, but still sitting in the silent cemetery with him did Klaus ask.

“Why do you come here?” He sounded broken.

Vanya just smiled sleepily, snot running down her face, “Because you’re my brother.”

Vanya had answered it like that was the most obvious thing in the world. Klaus didn’t know what to say, or what to do, he just stared at his sister who was desperately trying to stay awake and be present with him.

“You’re really something special,” Klaus murmured with a blush. He maneuvered Vanya so that she was almost in his lap and he could just hug and play with her hair (and so the angry ghost woman would be father away from her), “You know that right?”

Vanya smiled and hummed something unintelligible.

* * *

Vanya liked Ben, he was quiet and sweet and hated to fight. Vanya wished nothing more than to be able to take Ben’s place in missions and fight instead of him, to prove herself special, but that was something she would never be able to do. Instead what Vanya could do was offer comfort.

She saw how the violence, how the pain got to Ben, how it made him shrink further into himself. She could see how tearing people limb from limb with the monster inside of him tore Ben up inside. 

So after missions Vanya hugged her brother. Even if he had blood down his front that soaked into her uniform, she gave him a long tight hug, to prove he wasn’t a monster to everyone.

The first time she hugged him, Ben had been so lost he didn’t hug her back, just stood with his arms around her, not touching her, in a stunned silence. Vanya gave one last tight squeeze before she ran off to change from her bloody clothes.

As Vanya hugged him more, Ben began to slowly sink into the hugs and hug her back.

Then one day after a mission Vanya didn’t hug him, instead she pushed a paperback book into his hands. It was slightly worn, and there was a sticker on it, proclaiming it to be used book. Ben didn’t know what to do, he had just gotten accustomed to the hugs and now Vanya was changing the rules on him.

“I thought you might…” Vanya started, suddenly looking nervous and self-conscious. “I saw the book and I thought of you.”

Ben looked at the cover, it had the silhouette of a man and a boy on the cover and the title read, _ The Warrior Prince Inside _. It was cheesy, not the sort of book that Ben would normally pick out for himself, partially because he only had access to Reginald’s library. 

“How did you get this?” Ben asked, his chest swelling with happiness. He had never gotten a gift before, this was his first and would be his most treasured always.

“I pick up a little money while you’re all out on missions.” Vanya shrugged as if it were no big deal.

“Wow,” Ben breathed, thumbing over the pages of his new book lightly, “That’s really amazing Vanya.”

Vanya smiled at Ben, and then left to let him start the only book he actually owned.

* * *

Reginald had caught on to what she was doing for her brothers, and it exploded into a giant fight. Reginald bursting with anger, because he needed to keep Vanya down, keep her muted in order to stave off the apocalypse. So he did what came naturally to him, he yelled and degraded the girl.

“You are forbidden to come along with me and Number Four.” Reginald shouted, his voice shaking with anger and slightly with fear. “You can not help him Number Seven. You are not special.”

“I know that.” Vanya answered, her voice meek and not defiant. But oh how she longed to be, just once she wished her father would say that she was special. Even if it were a lie. She said it as a fact, one she was resigned to, and Reginald almost sighed with relief. “But they are, and they could reach their potential much faster if you praised them, helped them through it.”

Reginald didn’t mean it in the moment, he just snapped. The back of his hand hit her face in an instant. The sound reverberated through the room, and Reginald worried that Vanya would latch on to it, would use it to fuel her power.

Who did this child think she is? He had taken her in, and now she was acting like this?

Vanya had welling tears in her eyes, but she didn’t let them shed. She just looked down at her shoes, her face already swelling and reddening.

“Get out Number Seven.” Reginald seethed, he cradled his hand to his chest, it stung with hot shame. Never before had he hit a child, he didn’t enjoy the feeling. “You have nothing you can offer me.”

And Vanya scampered into the hallway, only to run into Five. 

Five had been lurking about, he had been waiting to see his father, to ask about time traveling, and had accidentally heard the whole thing. The blood was boiling in his veins, as he reached out to steady Vanya, and to look at her face.

Vanya tried to avoid Five’s gaze, because of everyone in the family she liked Five the most. He had always liked her, she was his favorite lab assistant, and would always ask her first to help with his findings. And now he was seeing her, like a baby about to cry.

“Come on.” Five said suddenly.

Vanya didn’t have a chance to ask where they were going, because Five had already used his power to transport them away. There was always a rush when teleporting with Five, it felt like free falling until suddenly jerking to a halt. Without fail Vanya felt motion sick every time.

Five had transported them to Girdy’s Donuts. He ushered them to a booth, where an older waitress took pity on them, giving them both a donut that would have been thrown out in an hour anyway. Five was still staring at Vanya, who was still looking anywhere but him.

“He’s full of shit you know.” Five said suddenly, causing Vanya to look up from her jelly donut.

Five was staring at her, his eyes burning with a fire that Vanya hadn’t seen before. It was a tense glare that made Vanya shift in her seat, but Five made sure to hold her gaze.

Vanya’s question of who is full of shit must have registered across her face because Five sighed, as if annoyed at the prospect of explaining himself, wishing that Vanya would just inherently know what he meant.

“Our father.” Five said calmly. Vanya broke eye contact looking down at the donut in her hand, and Five waited patiently until she looked back at him to continue, “You are special.”

And then Five took a bite of his donut, signifying this conversation was over.

* * *

Helping the others was harder than Vanya had originally thought it would be, Allison, Diego and Luther all had a relative hold on their powers and didn’t need the simple reassurances that Ben and Klaus needed; nor did they need the occasional lab partner like Five. Vanya was quiet stumped on the best way to approach helping her siblings.

She had no idea what to do, until she caught Allison watching a teen movie, where a bunch of girls were together at a sleepover. Vanya could see how Allison sighed, she wanted that. And Vanya knew Allison probably longed more for the friendship than the actual activities, but Vanya would do what she could.

It took her two weeks of sneaking out and doing odd chores for the neighbors for Vanya to get enough money for the night. She had it all planned, and just needed to get Allison to her room.

So after everyone was supposed to be in their rooms trying to sleep, Vanya crept down the hall to Allison’s room and knocked lightly, hoping not to wake her siblings, or her ever present mother.

Allison opened the door, she had a small secretive smile on her face, that was immediately dropped for a look of confusion when she saw Vanya. And for a second Vanya faltered, maybe this wasn’t the best idea, Allison was the most popular of her siblings and didn’t need the friendship of scrawny, useless, Vanya.

“Vanya?” Allison asked.

_ Allison can go if she doesn’t like it. _ Vanya reminded herself, _ we never have to mention it again if they don’t want to. _

“Vanya you’re worrying me. Is everything alright?” Allison asked, opening her door wider.

“I have something I need to show you.” Vanya whispered and then immediately set off towards her room. Allison glanced quickly back into her room, before sliding the door shut and following Vanya down the hall.

When Vanya opened the door to her room, Allison had expected many things. Maybe a dead body that Vanya wanted helping clearing away, or Vanya asking weird questions about her period, or maybe even *shudder* sex. But Allison was not expecting pink posters, make up palets, and nail polish. Vanya could tell by the look on her face.

Allison’s jaw dropped almost to the floor, a smile in her eyes.

“I thought maybe we could have a slumber party.” Vanya shrugged feeling self-conscious, “I know we sleep down the hall and all, but-”

“This is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.” Allison interrupted.

That night they had painted each others nails and toes, both of them using the only color Vanya could afford a fluorescent neon green, and did different make up looks, before crawling into bed with each other and sleeping with big smiles on their faces.

Vanya herself didn’t really like the activities they were doing, she didn’t see the point in wearing makeup if she would wash it away the next day, and painting her nails was useless because playing the violin chipped them too quickly. But the pure joy on Allison’s face was too good to pass up. So when Allison and Vanya woke up the next morning, and Allison asked almost sheepishly if they could do it again soon, Vanya had jumped at the chance.

The two girls went down to breakfast smiling and laughing. 

“I’m wounded.” Klaus said exaggeratedly, placing one hand to his heart.

“And why is that Klaus?” Allison huffed, she and Klaus had never really liked each other.

“I heard about your girls night.” Klaus pouted, “And I most definitely want in.”

So the next time Vanya hosted a slumber party in her closet of a room, she had three nail polish colors and slightly more make up, and two siblings to share it with. Klaus was really good at eyeshadow on her, but couldn’t get the look right on himself, and Allison had painted more of her hand then her nail. But the night ended with Allison, Klaus and Vanya sharing a bed with smiles on their faces.

“This was really fun.” Allison smiled.

“Mmm-hmm.” Klaus agreed, snuggling his face into Vanya’s shoulder.

“Next time we’ll have to play truth or dare.” Vanya smiled, she had done research on proper slumber party protocols, and found herself actually excited to try them out.

The three settled down, Klaus falling asleep almost immediately. Vanya was on the edge of sleep herself when Allison whispered, “Thank you Vanya.” 

Vanya didn’t answer with words, just made a grunting questioning noise.

And Allison’s voice carried over the night, honey sweet and smooth when she said, “I know you don’t love this, but your doing it for me. That’s really awesome… you’re really awesome. So thanks.”

* * *

Vanya watched Diego carefully, that wasn’t really a surprise, she watched all of her siblings carefully. But Diego in particular needed help.

Vanya watched at their father berated him, told him that he needed to learn self-control and discipline. She watched as Diego wilted under her father’s glare and shrugged of their mother’s attention.

“Hey Diego…” Vanya asked one afternoon after a particularly brutal argument with Reginald. Diego was curling his hands into fists, decidedly not looking at Vanya as she spoke. And even though Vanya’s voice wavered, she kept talking, “Can you help me?”

“With what?” Diego snapped back, his stutter was all but removed except when he was scared or too emotional.

“I want to learn how to fight.” Vanya replied.

Whatever Diego had been expecting it certainly wasn’t this, because he looked Vanya up and down. He started at her small frame, and her delicate hands with callouses not from fights but from violins. And Diego actually laughed.

Vanya dropped her head, hot embarrassment flooding her face. This was stupid, she shouldn’t have even tried.

“Wait.” Diego called out, he looked apologetic, one hand out stretched to his sister. “Why do you want to learn?”

“Because,” Vanya said, “I can’t do anything. What if I’m ever attacked? Or what if someone tries to hurt me?”

Vanya surprised herself, that was all true. It hadn’t really been why she asked, she had asked because she knew teaching a beginner would help discipline and control, but her made up excuse was real too. She was tired of relying on everyone else, she wanted to become independent.

Diego opened his mouth and closed it again, a painful look crossed his eyes, “If you are ever in trouble I will save you.”

It was a promise, one that Vanya would hold close to her heart, because Diego said it with such conviction she knew he would. He would drop everything and run to save her if need be.

“But I don’t want to rely on you.” Vanya countered, “Besides I should at least learn how to hold them off until you get there.”

And so Diego taught her the basics of the fight, how to punch without breaking your thumb, the way to stand in order to hit the hardest. He took this training very seriously, teaching Vanya the correct stances. To do that, he too had to remember to use the the correct forms himself. He had to do everything perfectly in order to teach Vanya.

And Reginald noticed, of course he did.

At first he only saw Number Two’s improvement, and not the cause. The first day after Reginald didn’t yell at Diego for messing up his footwork, Diego had ran to Vanya and thanked her.

“He told me I did an adequate job Van!” Diego chattered excitably, neither mentioned how it was barely praise, but was more than they were used to getting, “Thank you.”

“Me?” Vanya had asked actually confused, “I didn’t do anything.”

“Oh come on Vanya, you are the reason he isn’t up my ass any more. You’re…” Diego faltered, not because of his stutter, but instead because he wasn’t good at this. Complimenting others, he was always trying to push himself ahead and that often meant putting others down, “You’re something special.”

Vanya looked down, tucking her hair behind her ears and smiled.

Reginald saw this, and he didn’t like it, she was growing too happy, too complacent with her life.

* * *

  
  


“Number One, I have a mission for you.” Reginald said, and Luther primed under the attention, his chest out and a small self satisfied smile on his face, because his father chose him.

“I’m ready.” Luther answered, the picture of a perfect soldier.

“I need you to watch Number Seven.” Reginald replied, not even looking up from his notebook in which he was obsessively writing.

Luther made a face, because this was not the mission that he was expecting, or hoping for. He assumed that his first solo mission would be something exciting and fast paced, not babysitting. But Luther was not raised to question orders.

“Report back daily with her behaviors.” Reginald said as a way of dismissal.

And so for a week Luther watched Vanya. He watched how she sat and read with Ben, trading books and ideas. He watched as she hugged Klaus on mornings that he seemed more tired than usual. He watched how she and Allison sometimes shared a secretive smile, and how Five actually listened to her advice.

Luther didn’t understand why it made him so angry, why her closeness with his siblings made his fists tighten, or why his blood boiled when she and Diego laughed at something.

It took Luther a second week of steady observation to realize why he was so angry with Vanya. It happened at breakfast, the one meal that the children did not share with Reginald, and so were allowed to talk and interact. Vanya was at the head of the table pushing about her oatmeal, and Luther was so intent on watching her he didn’t even notice the fight between Five and Diego brewing.

“You’re an imbecile!” Five snarked at Diego, which caused Diego to throw his plate of oatmeal at his brother.

Klaus, being the drama queen he was dove under the table to avoid the violence, and pulled at Ben so he too was safely under the table. Allison got Oatmeal on her shirt and looked murderous. Luther tried to intervene, pulling Diego away from the brewing fight, but Diego struggled against his hold, and Allison had a bowl of oatmeal in her hand, poised to throw it at Diego in retribution.

“Guys!” Luther shouted, “No fighting.”

They didn’t listen, and the oatmeal sailed from Allison’s hand to cover both Diego and Luther. Diego sputtered and renewed his fight against Luther’s hold. Five was saying something about immaturity.

“Please don’t fight.” Vanya said, her voice quiet, but heard by everyone.

Luther was expecting for everyone to ignore the smallest Hargreeves, but to his utter shock Diego stopped fighting against him, Allison and Five actually looked ashamed. Luther stared open mouthed at the scene before them. But Vanya just smiled softly, pulling Klaus and Ben out from under the table.

Later, Luther made sure to find Vanya alone. She was practicing her violin, the melody flowing through the halls beautifully. Luther knocked on the door to his sister’s room, not quiet sure what the protocol was for this. He didn’t interact with his siblings besides Allison unless strictly necessary.

“Hey Luther.” Vanya smiled, putting her violin down on her bed to look at her brother.

“I-” Luther suddenly felt stupid, what was he going to say? He didn’t even know why he came here. And Suddenly a question that Luther hadn’t even know was burning in his mind burst from his lips, “How did you get Diego to listen to you? He never listens to me.”

_ And I am the leader, _ Luther silently added, _ everyone should listen to me. _

But instead they listened to small little Vanya, number seven in line. Why didn’t they listen to him?

“Oh.” Vanya said, as if she hadn’t noticed that Diego had listened to her, that her words carried meaning. “I just asked him?”

And it took Luther a long second to realize that Vanya had gently usurped his role. She wasn’t even aware of it, which made it all the more infuriating. Somehow powerless Vanya had become the leader right under number one’s nose.

“Listen Vanya,” Luther said, it came off darker than he expected, “I am the leader. I am the strongest, and you are just ordinary”

Vanya blinked, she was acting like she didn’t realize what she was doing, and it was infuriating. This must have been why their father had told him to watch Vanya, to reclaim his role as leader.

“I’m not trying to take your role.” Vanya whispered her voice small and broken, and if Luther weren’t so worried about his leadership he might have felt bad.

“Good. Because you're nothing, and you never could.” Luther said definitely. He turned and left his sister’s room.

Moments later Luther heard the most beautifully haunting violin solo, a piece that was just as broken as he had made Vanya feel.

That night at training his siblings had all ganged up on him, all fought him with more vigor than necessary. Reginald hadn’t said anything expect about some minor stance adjustments. In the locker room after training Luther stood with an ice pack on his lip from a dangerously close knife.

“What the hell was that today?” Luther asked to the locker room, he was brimming with anger.

“You hurt Vanya’s feelings dude.” Ben answered as if it explained the treatment he had received.

“Some leader you are, putting down the most valuable member of your team.” Allison sneered.

“Most valuable member?” Luther asked, they couldn’t be talking about Vanya. She was useless, she was _ ordinary. _

Five looked murderous, before popping out of existence. The rest left with various looks of disappointment, until it was only him and Allison.

Luther reached out to Allison, his _ something _… but she danced out of his way, not letting him touch her. An ugly frown marred her beautiful face and then Allison said darkly, “I expect Dad to be an ass, but I thought you were better than that.”

Luther skipped dinner, he didn’t want to see his siblings disappointment. Instead he sat in Vanya’s room waiting for her to return. The more that Luther thought about it the worse he felt, he wasn’t being a good leader, a leader listens to everyone on his team. And Vanya was definitely on his team.

Vanya came into her room and was shocked to see her brother on her bed. She didn’t want to talk to him right now, she was tired and just wanted to sleep.

“Vanya,” Luther started, “I’m sorry I was a jerk.”

Luther waited for Vanya to say something. He wanted her absolution, wanted all of his family’s forgiveness. But Vanya didn’t say a word, just crossed her arms over her chest.

“I was jealous, they all listen to you, you’re the leader here not me.” Luther started, and Vanya actually looked shocked, “And I was lying when I said you were ordinary, your anything but. Vanya you’re extraordinary.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I am sorry if Vanya is OOC, she is so hard to write. I hope everyone enjoys though.


End file.
